The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-02-09

a black angel OF wrath under a spear OF the
sunshine turned TO an angel of light, and now
from horizon to horizon the air is picture
gallery filed with masterpieces of which God
is the artist, morning clouds of smoke born
in the sunrise, and evening clouds Of smoke
laid in the FURNISHED sepulchers Of the sun
set.
The beauty Of the TRANSPORTED smoke il a
divine symbol of the beauty of the church The
fairest Of all the fair is she. Do not call those
prosecutors of whom / spoke the church
They are the parasites Of the church, not the
church itself Her mission Is to cover the
earth with supernatural gladness, 10 open
all the prison doors, 10 balsain all the wounds,
10 moss all the graves, to burn up the night
in the fireplace of a great morning,
TO change iron handouts into diamonded
wristIets, to turn the whole race around,
and whereas it faced death, command
ing It: @Right about face for heaven"
According TO the number of the spires
of the churches in all our cities, towns and
neighborbOods are the good homes, the
worldly properties and the pure morals and
the happy souls.
Meet me at any depot the world over, and
with my eyes closed take me by the hand and
lead me so that my feet viii not stumble, and
without my once looking down, or looking on
the level, take me to some high roof or tower
and let me see the tops of the churches, and l
viii tell you the proportion of suicides, Of
arsons, of murders, of thefts. Ac-
cording as the churches are numerous
are the crimes few. According as the churches
are few the crimes are numerous. The most
beautiful organization the world ever saw or
ever will see is the much maligned church,
the friend of all good, the foe of all evil, @fair
h. and fla aG ba
full in her author, beautiful in her mission,
the heroine of the centuries, the bride of
Christ, the queen of the nations. There are
hundreds Of kindly institutions, some caring
for inebriates, some for the crippled, some for
the iInbecile some for the misled, some for the
blind, but the church is the mother of all
these kindly institutions. There are asylnms
-American or English, or Scotch, or Irish
or French, or German, or Itallan-but the
church spreads her mantle over all these and
will yet spread it over all nations. Her
gates are beautiful her songs are beautiful
her prayers are beautiful her convocations
are beautiful, her work is beautiful. All
kings and warriors viii yet bow down at her
affairs, all chains of serfdom be shattered
against her doorstep, all nations will yet fol-
low her leading. How amiable are thy
tabernaclesl How sacred thy altarsl How
glorious thy auditoriumsl So graceful, SO
aspiring, so grand, and rolling on and rolling
up, we cry out in regard to her: "Who is she
that eometh out of the wilderness like pillars
of smoke"
Men may desecrate it. as Cromwell did when
he stabbed his cavalry horses in st. Paul's ca
thelral; or break off the image Of Christ, as
did the iconoclasts in York minister; or burl
against it august literary antipathies, as did
Gibbon; or plot its overthrow, as do some in
every community whose pride and hate and
debauchery are reproved by the Ten
Commandments which it thJnders, and
the sermon on the mount which it
breathes But it will stand as long as the
earth stands, the same unique and wonder
working and beatific and miraculous thing
for which God decreed it, Small wits tax
their brain to say things that will put her at
disadvantage, but many of them will send for
its coincidence when dying, and their children
will be gathered up under its benedictions
after the parental curse has been removed.
Through her gates will march all the infu-
ences for good that shall ever reach our
world Take her membership as mass, not
speaking of the acknowledged exceptions
they are the noblest, grandest, kindest, best
men and women of the ages. But for them
the earth would long ago have been burned
out volcano They have been the salt that
has kept the human race from putrefac-
ton insufferable either to human or an
gelic olfactories. You lying and hypo-
critical world, shut up those ISLANDERS
about the church of Christ, an institution
which, far from being what it ought to be,
and never pretending to be perfect, is five
hundred times better than any other institu-
ton that the world ever saw or ever dreamed
Of The highest honor l ever had, and the
highest honor / shall ever receive and the
highest honor / ever want is to have my
name on her records as member. At her
affairs | repented. At her sacramentS | be-
lieved. In her service let me die From her
doors let me be buried. o, church of God!
Thou home of the righteousl Thou harbor
from tempest Thou refuge for the weary
Thou lighthouse of many nations Thou
type of HeavenI could kiss thy very dust
with ecstasy of affection.
For her my tears shall fall,
For her my prayers ascend,
To her my tolls and cares be given
Till tolls and cares shall end
"Perfumed smoke" says Solomon, in the
words following my text. Not like the fumes
coughed up from the throat of a steam pipe,
or poisoned with the gases of chemical fac
tories, or floating in black wrath from the
conflagration of homesteads, or sulphurous
from blazing batteries, but sweet as a burn
ing grove of cinnamon or jungle of sassafras,
or the odors of a temple censor. "Who is
this that cometh out of the wilderness like
pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and
frankinccnsesp Hear it, men and women
everywhere, that the advance of the genuine
church of Christ means peace for all nations
Victor Hugo, in his book entitled NINETY
three says: Nothing calmer than smoke
but nothing more startling There are peace
full smokes, and there are evil ones. The thick.
ness and color of line of smoke make the
whole difference between war and peace, be
tween fraternity and hatred The whole
happiness of man or his complete misery i.
sometimes expressed in this thin vapor which
| the wind scatters at will The great French
man was right, but go further and say that
as the kingdom of God advances like pillars
| of smoke, the black volumes belching from
batteries of war and pouring out from port
| holes of ships win vanish from the sky.
A distinguished gentleman of the late wal
| told me recently that Abraham Lincoln
proposed to avoid our civil conflict BY
| purchase of all the slaves of the south
and setting them free. He calculated
| what would be reasonable price fol-
them, and, when the number of millions Of
| dollars that would be required for such pur
| pose was announced, the proposition wa.
| secuted, and the north would not have made
| the offer and the south would not have &C
| cepted it if made. @But," said my military
| friend "the war went on, and just the mum
Der of millions of dollars that Mr.. Lincoln
! calculated would have been enough to make
reasonable purchase of all the slaves were
| spent in war, besides all the precious lives
| that were hurled away in the two hundred
| and fifty battles In. other words, there
ought to be some other way for men to settle
their controversies without wholesale
| butchery
The church of God win yet become the
arbiter of nations If the world would allow
it, it could to-day step in between Germany
and France and settle the trouble about
Alsace and Lorraine, and between Russia
and Bulgaria, and between England and her
antagonists, and between all the other ma
tions that are flying at each others threats,
and command peace and disband armies and
harness for the plow the war horses now be-
ing hitched to ammunition wagons or saddled
for cavalry charge. That time must come, or
through the increased facility for shooting
men and blowing up cities and whelmins
hosts to instant death, so that we can kin q
regiment easier than we could once kill
a company, and kill a brigade easier
than we could once kill regiment, the
patent Offices of the world more busy than
ever in recognizing new enginery OF destruc-
ton, the human race win after a while go
fighting with one arm, and hobhling with
one foot, and stumbling along with one eve
and some ingenious inventor, inspired Of the
archangel of all mischief, will contrive a
machine that viii bore a hole to the earth,s
center, and some desperate nation win throw
into that hole enough dynamite TO blow this
hulk OF a planet into fragments, dropping
habitationss
But this shall not be, for whatever else I
let go hang on to my Bible. which tells me
tlak tlo. hia